Thursday, March 12, 2015

Australian Medical Association expels Nitschke

Never far from the news it seems the ABC Alice Springs reports today that the Northern Territory Branch of the Australian Medical Association has expelled Philip Nitschke from its ranks.

This news comes immediately after the death of Nitschke's legal council last week. Peter Nugent QC was, according to reports, suffering from stage four cancer but was not understood to be near death. Nitschke told Fairfax Media that Nugent “had options in place” for ending his own life. He also said that Nugent's death was 'perplexing' and 'a great loss'.

The suspension was heard in the Northern Territory Health Professional Review Tribunal in November last year. The suspension, upheld at that juncture, continues pending the hearing of a dozen complaints to the Australian Health Professionals Regulation Agency about the activities of Exit and Philip Nitschke (including one complaint from this writer).

Nitschke has lodged an appeal to the original suspension and that hearing is listed for the Supreme Court in Darwin in early April.

Responding to this latest move by the AMA to expel Nitschke as a member, head of the NT Branch of the AMA, Dr Robert Parker told the ABC that the decision related to both the Nigel Brayley case (mentioned above) and the AMA's own code of ethics.

"It wasn't just the AHPRA [Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency] issues, it was also the AMA issues," he said.

"The AMA expects very high standards from its members and my understanding is that the council, in reviewing Dr Nitschke felt that he hadn't...actually achieved those very high standards."

Dr Parker added that advocacy of 'rational suicide' does not comply with the AMA's code of ethics.